Tell: An Intimate History of Gay Men the Milary | GQ

Contents:

• I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.
• PK PISTOLS: LGBT GUN OWNERS UNE ARMG GAY COMMUNY
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
• HOW EXCLN FROM THE MILARY STRENGTHENED GAY INTY AMERI
• ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS

I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.

In rponse, and apparently to monstrate his petency his assigned posn, the nonmissned officer had taken upon himself to approach the person he nsired cled toward mtg a siar offense the future: me, the only openly gay soldier my un. Together we approached our un’s learship, where she sisted that the ments had stemmed om the reprentative’s own homophobic feelgs and remend that he be reprimand and removed om his posn as the un’s sexual harassment watchdog.

PK PISTOLS: LGBT GUN OWNERS UNE ARMG GAY COMMUNY

But by then was hard to ignore the anxiety I felt durg required social activi — “mandatory fun, ” as ’s lled the ary — or the tensn om my fellow moment I cid to bee a soldier and the moment I chose to live openly as a gay man occurred so closely time that ’s hard to remember which me first.

It was still four months before the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell, ” a double-edged policy prohibg askg any service member about his or her sexualy while enforcg a ban on openly gay service members.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

Every memory evok an emotn: rage that I had to serve wh a nstant sense of fear of my fellow soldiers; paralyzg sadns for those who endured ab worse than I n know; and, the worst, guilt over the service members — gay or straight or transgenr — who died while servg the ary while my body is still whole. But I felt nfint my teacher, Jeff Bloovman, a Philalphia gun stctor and a member of the Pk Pistols, an LGBT group based around the belief that guns n go a long way batg homophobia. A small, loosely anized group of a few dozen chapters sttered across the stat and Canada, cludg Toronto, San Francis and Charlton, South Carola, the Pk Pistols’ membership has climbed om around 1, 500 earlier this month to about 6, 500 sce the June day Omar Mateen attacked the Pulse nightclub, turng the dance floor to a killg field and crashg together two culture war battlegrounds that rarely nverge: gays and guns.

While the majory of LGBT people seem to be llg for more regulatn, Pk Pistols and their alli are hunkerg down and takg up arms, bandg together unr the group’s motto, a nontatnal warng to potential gay-bashers: “Pick on someone your own liber.

The Pk Pistols formed around 2000, after gay journalist Jonathan Rch – still outraged by Matthew Shepard’s 1998 murr, and knowg gay men who stopped attacks wh guns – published an article on Salon.

HOW EXCLN FROM THE MILARY STRENGTHENED GAY INTY AMERI

“[Gays] should set up Pk Pistols task forc, sponsor shootg urs and help homosexuals get licensed to rry, ” he wrote, notg that they should do a way to garner as much publicy as possible.

ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS

As Rch has nced, same-sex marriage, the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and other ton have empowered LGBT people, but remas that anti-gay attacks, like anti-Amerin attacks, n be vised upon at anytime. The are the voic explag what has been like to be a gay man1 the Amerin ary over the prev seventy or so years, om World War II veterans their late eighti to young servicemen on active duty.

"I remember beg the Castro, " says John Forrett (army rerve, 1987–99), "and watchg the TV at a bar wh some iends, watchg Al Gore and Bill Clton swearg that if they beme the tag team for Ameri they were gog to get rid of the harassment of gays and lbians servg the ary. " Gay people were allowed the ary but only as long as they didn’t reveal their sexualy; to facilate this, all members of the ary were also prohibed om quirg about anyone’s possible orientatn.

And therefore few people realized that the first Amerin serly wound the vasn of Iraq durg the send Gulf war was a gay Alva signed up, before "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, " he had to lie on his paperwork. Lbians have suffered unr the same prohibns and prejudic and share many of the same experienc, as well as some that are distct, but this article ncentrat on the experience of gay men. And when, 2006, the battl over "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" the ary and gay marriage the wir muny were simmerg, Alva’s boyiend at the time poted out to him that he did have some notoriety that might be of e.